


We are One and Two

by needchocolatenow



Category: DCU Animated, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-15
Updated: 2011-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-16 23:58:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/170757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/needchocolatenow/pseuds/needchocolatenow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone thinks Batman is dead. Robin knows differently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We are One and Two

**Author's Note:**

> yj_anon_meme: Something happens and everyone thinks Batman is dead.
> 
> The others try to help Robin deal, but they can't because they don't understand. Batman wasn't just Robin's mentor. Bruce was the closest thing he's had to a father since his real parents died and he can't have 2 dead fathers. He can't.
> 
> So, basically, Dick in denial and the others try to help him deal.
> 
> Then Batman comes back.
> 
> Bonus for hugs. I like hugs :3 Especially OMGYOU'REALIVENEVERDOTHATAGAINNEVERLEAVEMEAGAIN hugs ...lol
> 
> BREAK MY HEART, ANONS. BREAK IT AND FIX IT.

Robin’s sitting at the kitchen countertop, swinging his legs freely back and forth as he sits on the stool and hums to himself. He’s holding a large cup of milk in his hands, only half empty when Kaldur stumbles onto the scene. It’s in the dead of the night and the only reason that Kaldur is out in the kitchen area is because he was returning from the bathroom when he saw the lights on.

“Robin,” Kaldur says as he joins the younger boy.

“Oh, hey, Kaldur,” Robin says, looking up. He has a milk mustache and his eyes are bluer than ever without the reflective sunglasses and the domino mask. “What are you doing up so late?”

“I saw the lights on,” Kaldur says truthfully. He eyes the cup of milk and the swinging legs. “Have you slept?” he asks.

“I just finished my homework,” Robin replies and gives a small yawn. “Batman would bench me if I didn’t do well in class.” He makes a face. “Fighting bad guys isn’t a get-out-of-homework-free card.”

Kaldur pauses and thinks. Should he bring it up? He looks at Robin, so young and small that his feet don’t even skim the floor. Still worrying about schoolwork. He decides against it and tries to smile, but it’s difficult. He thinks he manages it somehow because Robin returns it with a blinding grin.

“I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” Robin says as he takes several giant gulps of his milk. He sets the cup in the sink and waves a good night as he trots down the corridor to the rooms.

Kaldur says nothing—can’t say anything. His throat is constricted and he sits there alone in the kitchen, staring at the reflective countertop as if it holds all the answers in the world. All that is there though, is metal and a cold surface. With a shaky sigh, he gets up off the stool, his feet instantly touching ground. Not like Robin who has to hop off of the stool.

“Good night,” he says, even though Robin is long gone and the rest of Mount Justice is silent.

-

“Rob!” Wally yells and nearly tackles the black haired boy to the ground with a very manly bear hug the moment that he and Flash walks through the doors to the Hall of Justice.

“Whoa, what’s going on?” Robin asks, struggling out of Wally’s grasp. He held on tighter and finally, Robin stopped squirming and sighed. Cameras are going off on the observation deck and Wally couldn’t care less if the headlines tomorrow is going to scream about sordid affairs between Kid Flash and Robin.

“I heard, man, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Wally says, words tumbling out of his mouth. He actually had a whole speech prepared for this, but when he entered the room and saw Robin standing there, everything disappeared out of his mind. “If you have nowhere to go, you can come home with me, you know. My folks won’t mind.”

“KF,” Robin says fondly, his voice muffled against Wally’s shoulder. “If you don’t let go of me right now, I’m going to sucker punch you in the gut.”

He quickly let go. “You okay?” Wally asks, hands still on Robin’s shoulders.

Robin’s smiling and looking no different from normal. He flicks Wally’s hands off his shoulders and Wally wishes that he can see his best friend’s eyes. Are they tired? Bloodshot?

But Robin’s clearly fine. He’s rested. Healthy. Alive.

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” Robin shoots back and grins. “I wasn’t the one caught up in the Brainiac incursion zone,” he says. “Glad you got out of there.” He punches Wally in the arm where a giant bruise is healing.

“Ow!” Wally says and scowls. “I’m wounded here! Give me some respect; I fought off an alien invasion!”

Robin snickers. Somehow, he had changed the subject entirely, not answering any of Wally’s questions or concerns. If Robin didn’t want to talk, then it’s fine. Maybe it’s too soon and Flash had said that Robin might need a little time. Batman and Robin had shared a bond so close that they didn’t need words to communicate on patrol or missions. Even when the end-of-the-world loomed over them and everyone was frantic to try to stay by their mentors’ sides, those two were different. Unlike the hugs and the telepathy and the nervous chatter that everyone else had been reduced to, Batman had just put a hand on Robin’s shoulder and that was that.

Wally looks at Robin, scrutinizing as well as he can, and thinks Robin isn’t alright. He can’t be alright.

He manages to catch Flash’s gaze and shakes his head.

-

M’gann is doing her best to not look into people’s minds, but she can’t help it. When emotions are high, they bleed into her consciousness whether she wanted to know or not. She’s been feeling a big, heavy feeling in the center of her chest, a black pressure that’s so thick it nearly stops her from breathing the first time she feels it, won’t go away no matter what she tries. It makes her unbalanced and upset easily and she wants the ugly mass in her chest to go away.

Kaldur and Wally had both turned to her to talk to Robin, although she’s certain that both of them had tried and failed. Not in the sense that Robin wasn’t communicative, but their courage to talk about such a sensitive subject deserted them.

Boys. Honestly.

But the last thing she wants is to talk to Robin, much less see him.

The ugly thing settled on her chest is most likely Robin’s and she thinks that if she comes into contact with him, she might keel over and die. Or maybe she’ll bawl her eyes out, whichever is the more likely scenario.

The pleading from her team wins out and she steels herself as she knocks on Robin’s door.

He opens it, wearing his civilian clothes and the reflective sunglasses. He’s smiling lightly.

“Miss M,” he says, his tone light and teasing. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Oh,” is the only thing that escapes her lips. She’s grabbing him and holding him tight, but she doesn’t sense or feel anything dark and horrible from Robin. His thoughts are clear and concise as they’ve always been and in him, deep in his mind and buried in his heart, is a floating, warm sensation. It calms the ugly thing in her chest and she’s wailing because she misses Batman and his silent presence. She’s never going to hear him growl out orders or intimidate all of them during debriefings.

The pressure inside her lifts as she cries and she realizes that it isn’t Robin’s. It’s her own feelings and how terrible she feels about the whole situation.

If she did something different, if she took another course of action, she might have been able to save him. She had been right there, no more than fifty yards away. She’s a fast flyer, she would have made it. She could have. Probably.

“Megan,” Robin says, awkwardly rubbing small circles on her back. “It’s okay. Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

“I-I’m sorry,” she chokes out. It’s the only thing she can say now. “I’m sorry!”

For a moment, something deep inside Robin twists and jerks and ices over. But Robin just smiles and hands her a box of tissue. “He’s not dead, you know.”

She stops crying and blinks at him, finally knowing what it is that’s hidden deep inside him. The floating, warm feeling from Robin is hope.

-

Superboy doesn’t really know what to think, much less feel, about the whole situation.

Kaldur and Wally are acting strange around Robin. They never bring up anything about Gotham or Batman. Megan is even stranger than the other two. Sometimes she’s practically glued to Robin’s side and other times she refuses to come out of her space ship.

All he can do is arrange the facts that he knows and try to reason with them. Normally, Kaldur would take him aside and talk to him, because the Atlantean always seems to know what’s on his mind despite not being a mind reader. Kaldur’s been otherwise occupied and he’s always talking with Aquaman and some of the other Justice League members, as if trying to iron out details of something. Superboy didn’t give much thought to that.

Wally is always running around, trying to keep busy. Superboy finds it hard to keep up with him sometimes and talking with him sometimes leads to headaches. So he goes to Robin to clear up the fog in his head.

“Why is everyone acting so weird?” he asks the tiny black haired boy in front of him.

Robin is in his civilian clothing, his sunglasses in place. He raises an eyebrow at Superboy’s question and shrugs. “You mean weirder than usual?” he asks in return.

Superboy frowns. “This is about Batman, right?”

Robin stretches from his spot on the couch, his joints popping and cracking, the telltale signs that he’s been sitting there for hours. Hours doing what? Superboy looks around the room and sees nothing in particular that’s interesting. No gadgets, no games, not even the television is on.

“Did they ever teach you about…death in Cadmus?” Robin asks. He rubs at his eyes underneath the sunglasses and the motion lifts them for a fraction of a second and Superboy sees the dark rings under his eyes.

“Yes,” Superboy answers. “Death is the absolute stop of all biological functions for a living organism. What does this have to do about Batman?”

Robin smirks. “Nothing,” he says.

“Then why is everyone acting so weird? Do they think Batman is dead?” he asks because he’s genuinely confused. He wishes that Robin would just give him a straightforward answer instead of walking him towards one.

“Everyone has their own reactions to death,” Robin says. He looks at Superboy and tilts his head. “Do you think Batman’s dead?”

Superboy stares back at Robin. So the reason why everyone’s been on their toes is because they’re afraid of Robin’s reaction to Batman’s death. And Robin is asking him if he thinks Batman is dead. Is this Robin’s reaction? That he has the hope that Batman’s alive? This is why everyone’s been acting strangely around Robin?

“I don’t know what to think,” Superboy answers honestly. “I don’t feel like he’s gone.” He glances around the lounge, staring at a security sensor in the corner of the room. It’s nearly the same as having Batman watching over them. He can almost see the dark shape hunched over the security monitors in the Tech Room. “He shouldn’t be gone. He’s coming back, right?”

Robin is silent for a moment. “Yeah, he’s coming back,” he says, his voice tiny and quiet. He’s staring at the security sensor too. “He’s definitely coming back.”

-

It’s strange, but Gotham isn’t overrun by super villains or gang wars. Instead, there’s a strange silence that settles on the streets, like the calm before a storm. The Joker’s escaped from Arkham and no one’s heard or seen him for a week; he’s no doubt biding his time. Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Penguin are also around, but they’re suspiciously quiet too.

Or maybe, Clark thinks, it’s because of the presence of the Justice League.

Diana doesn’t exactly pull her punches. Both Hal Jordan and John Stewart can materialize things the moment they think of them. Barry is too quick to be caught.

No one in Gotham can stand up to them, it’s too easy. At this point, Bruce would be in all their faces, forcing them out of Gotham, telling them it’s his city with narrowed eyes. They’d argue that they’re helping him. He’d point out how they’re severely outmatched.

Who’s Bruce supposed to protect anyway?

Clark bites the inside of his cheek, getting away from the imaginary conversation he’s having with Bruce, as he watches a tiny figure swinging above the buildings, dressed in black and red, a flash of yellow on the chest visible. Flying behind him several paces away is Diana.

He overhears, because he just can’t help it and because his hearing is just too good.

“Robin, stop this!”

“No, you stop it!”

“He would not have wanted this—”

“He’s not dead!”

“Robin, he was my friend too, I—”

“Get out of my city! You’re not helping anyone here. Get out! Get out! And you, Superman, I see you up there! Get out of my city!”

-

The funeral is huge. Every costumed hero is out on the streets of Gotham and every costumed villain is hundreds of miles away.

Superman’s giving the eulogy. The lines around his eyes more pronounced and a crease in his forehead as he frowns continuously makes him look old. Older than he really is. Wonder Woman’s eyes are red, as if she’s been crying, but she stands tall and proud in her red, white, and blues. The Flash is perpetually red and Kid Flash is always yellow. They both seem haggard and sagging a bit, both their effervescent personalities missing.

Robin stares at the empty coffin and avoids looking at anyone, avoids speaking to anyone.

Superboy is beside him, brows drawn into an identical frown of Superman’s, right down to the crease in the forehead. His arms are crossed over his chest and he looks like he wants to object to Superman’s speech. Miss Martian is on Robin’s other side, eyes suspiciously dry. But she’s already done enough crying; maybe her well of tears has gone.

Robin feels tired. He’s pushed the funeral back as far as he could, reasoned and argued that Batman’s still alive, that he has to be, Brainiac can’t kill him that easily. His pleas had always fallen on deaf ears and sympathetic glances, but no one really listened.

He doesn’t want to be here, not for this farce of a funeral with no body.

A lot of people are looking at him. He knows because he can feel the weight of their stares. He wants to snap at them, tell them that Batman’s not dead, he can’t be because he’s _Batman_ and if he’s gone, where does that leave Robin? They’re Batman and Robin, the Dynamic Duo. The Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder. He can’t just be the Boy Wonder alone, he needs Batman.

He looks at the coffin, the slick black container with the Bat symbol painted on it surrounded by a yellow halo. There’s nothing spectacular about it, it’s a coffin, but Robin—Dick, he’s seen enough coffins of parents and mentors in a lifetime.

The tears just fall from his eyes, welling up behind the mask and he has to take it off before it falls off on its own. He can’t wipe them away fast enough and Miss Martian wraps her arms around him, holding him close, a hand protectively shielding his face from any cameras that might catch his identity. Superboy continues to stand and glare, though he’s edging slowly in front to hide them with his bulk.

There’s a loud roar of a motorcycle engine and he looks up to see a huge man land on the roof of a building not too far away. Beside him is a smaller figure and Superman, in the middle of talking, trails off.

Robin’s heart is hammering at his throat, mask forgotten on the street, and he’s swinging through the air with his grapple and lands on the roof.

Lobo’s saying something in his gruff, scratchy tone and wide grin on his face and Robin can’t care enough why he’s there because next to him, battered and looking worse for wear, is Batman.

“Are you real?” he asks and his voice is tense and strained because if this isn’t, if this is some delusion he’s having, he thinks that he might scream.

Batman doesn’t need to answer, just narrows his eyes until they’re slits in the cowl and Robin takes a flying leap at him, wrapping his arms around the Kevlar armor as far as they would go and clings. Batman is stiff and unyielding, but slowly, he feels the brush of gauntlets over his shoulders as the hug is returned and Robin knows, feels the exhaustion and worry leave him because he’s been right all along.

Batman’s alive. And that’s all he needs.


End file.
